May 2009

Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com. Dear ATL — I’ve been unemployed for almost a year. I have good academic credentials, but lost my job as a junior-associate in Biglaw before I could develop a highly valuable set of skills. At first, finding interviews for available positions was […]

Maybe work is booming at Schulte Roth & Zabel? The firm is changing its vacation policy to make it more stringent. Could it be that the firm wants all hands on deck? A tipster reports the major changes: * Personal days are now limited to 5 per year (there was previously no limit). Any days […]

Litigation finance is a funding tool many companies are considering to help cover the fees and expenses related to major legal claims. We at Lake Whillans Litigation Finance have compiled a list of questions to help you determine if your client is a candidate for litigation finance.

* Musical Chairs: Kirkland & Ellis loses the majority of its West Coast bankruptcy and restructuring team to Jones Day. Six L.A. lawyers and one N.Y. associate are making the Jones Day jump. [American Lawyer] * A personal injury firm in Connecticut has sued Google for selling its name to a competing firm. Stratton Faxon […]

At least one summer associate in the Chicago office of Mayer Brown appears to have contracted swine flu (aka the H1N1 virus), according to a firm memo that was circulated within the past hour. In addition, a second associate has been showing symptoms. Quipped one of the many tipsters who sent this our way: “As […]

“Not wanting to push her too fast, he rode her easy…. She got hot and wet, but too wet.” That sounds like something you’d find in the pages of a soft-core porn novel. But no, instead you’ll find it in the non-sexily titled “MarineMax’s Motion To Dismiss Count X of Plaintiffs Second Amended Complaint,” filed […]

* Latvian hookers are the “canary in the coal mine” of economic recovery. Hey, I’m ready to do my part to help end the recession. [Dealbreaker] * Chris Brown hates haters, blames them for roughing up Rihanna. Chris Brown definitely loves fishsticks. [Popsquire] * Every year someone tries to come up with an argument in […]

The recently released Michael Vick can expect no quarter from most animal lovers. I forget how long he was in jail, but if his sentence didn’t involve a dog biting him in the ass every day, then it wasn’t long enough. But Vick is (or was) merely a retailer in the world of inhumane treatment […]

Yesterday, the Exquisite Rap Duo dropped a new album. What’s especially exquisite about the album is that it’s the work of Anthony McNamer, an IP attorney in Portland, Oregon. McNamer is a ’95 Stanford Law grad who has worked for Bingham McCutchen and for Davis Wright Tremaine, clerked in American Samoa, and founded his own […]

Right now the news cycle is dominated by the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor (2d Cir.) to the U.S. Supreme Court. We’ve been following the story closely, of course, and we’ll have more later. In the meantime, check out Underneath Their Robes, where Clerquette has been blogging up a storm. Her latest posts appear here […]

The California Supreme Court might have upheld Proposition 8, but those who are trying to use the courts to promulgate a notion of fundamental fairness for gays and lesbians are not done. In fact, the battle has just begun: In a bold move that takes a new approach to achieving marriage equality, two attorneys who […]

Performance reviews have never been fun exactly. But these days, when firms are periodically going on “cleanses,” the review process is more nerve-wracking then ever. We are receiving anecdotal reports of associates who have always received good reviews suddenly being criticized for ridiculously trivial infractions — perhaps to lay the groundwork for a future performance-based […]

As many of you know, Jones Day guards its salary information as if the firm is protecting the Holy Grail. Compensation is kept confidential and talking about what you make, even to colleagues, is generally discouraged. But no firm is immune from the global economic crisis. Today, a piece of information leaked out of Jones […]

Last month, we brought you a summer lunch memo featuring the comedic stylings of lawyers from Cleary Gottlieb. This week, a lunch memo is going around the offices of WilmerHale: Year in and year out, our Summer Associates tell us that what they remember most is the time they spent with the lawyers of WilmerHale. […]

* GM drove its Chevy to the bondholder levy but the levy was dry. Bankruptcy imminent. [Wall Street Journal] * Is your support for same-sex marriage and opposition to Prop 8 strong enough to risk a citation for jaywalking? [CNN] * … For more on yesterday’s California Supreme Court ruling letting Prop 8 and existing […]

This morning we covered the announcement by President Barack Obama of his intention to nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor, of the New York-based Second Circuit, to serve as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. This afternoon, we participated in a conference call between a senior Administration official and several reporters, to discuss the Sotomayor […]

If you like the fast life, look out for opportunities in your firm’s offices abroad. Judging from the Russian tales of Deidre Dare and the new memoir, China High, by the pseudonymous “ZZ,” life in Biglaw’s foreign offices is full of drugs, sex, and nonstop clubbing. Of course, these two are no longer with their […]

* Save the date. David Lat will be trying to help people restart their careers in a couple of weeks. [New York City Bar] * Many of you know that our own Kashmir Hill has been exploring privacy law over at True/Slant the past couple of months. I’m getting into the mix over there too, […]

Back in March, we reported on salary cuts for associates at Allen Matkins. At the time, we reported: First year salary has been reduced from $160K to $145K. A number of other associates (excluding first years) were informed that their salary would be reduced by 15% or 30%. Those associates were told that they were […]